Where do ideas come from?

Even the most amazing ideas, which seem to come to us as random glimpses of insight, suddenly illuminating our Spirits in a flash as if we were remembering some deep truth once forgotten, gradually lose their brilliance with every thought that comes to mind after them, eventually being forgotten altogether once again. I find great truth in the following statement by Paracelsus, who believed that “all knowledge comes from the stars (the Universal Mind). Men do not invent or create ideas; the ideas exist and men are able to grasp them.” I take this to mean that ideas are not opinions at all, but are actually facts. Real ideas are truths regarding God and the laws which dictate the entire universe. These ideas reside in the realm of pure wisdom, the realm of Spirit, which is above the carnal mind. Paracelsus refers to this Spirit as “The Universal Mind”, comparable to the Spirit which I often speak of, which is the emanation and reflection of God’s being dwelling inside of us. Ideas are therefore truths, whether we grasp them or not, and we all grasp each universal truth according to our own level of consciousness, depending on how in tune we are with the realm of pure wisdom, and with our spiritual nature.

The nature of the Divine Spirit within us is pure and righteous in every sense of the word. In Hinduism, it is our true Self, the Atman in each of us which reflects the complete all-pervading Brahman; and in Kabbalistic terms, it is the Divine Light in us which emanates from the Ein Sof, through the sefiroth of the Tree of Life. An incredible amount of cultures and belief systems have different terms for these very similar concepts, which is further truth of the relevance of Paracelsus’ statement, that all ideas exist as universal truths, and that it is up to us to grasp them. Sometimes, through silencing the mundane thoughts of the mind, and through deep contemplation of the mysteries of life, we are able to grasp some of these Divine truths. The problem is that we are often so excited by having realized something important, that our ego starts glorifying itself as if it had thought of the idea itself, shifting the focus from the Divine Self of the Spirit to the fake self of the mind. Other times, the opposite takes places, and feelings of insecurity and doubt lead us to criticize and suppress the Divine ideas we have realized. These feelings are also products of mental patterns adopted by us.

Many ideas are often destroyed by the mind before they can be manifested into physical reality as either righteous speech or action. For example, we might find ourselves in an uncomfortable situation which requires us to act against what we know to be correct. We see others around us engaging in destructive behaviors, and the Divine Spirit within us points out to us the great truth that such behavior is wrong. Feeling such conviction, we will not partake, and we might even feel inspired to motivate our peers to change their behavior patterns. This is a Divine idea which we have had the ability to understand. What happens way too often however, is that we begin to think such thoughts as “Who am I to instruct others on how to live their lives?”, or “No one would pay attention to me, and they might even discriminate against me, if I were to share this great truth with them, which would surely interfere with their immediate ignorance and pleasure.” We remain silent as to not disturb the masses with the truth, deciding to place minimal importance on the difference such an idea might have made in another’s life in the long run. We can see from this example, that this process of pollution and eventual destruction of a Divine idea is brought about by the various overpowering doubts, insecurities, confusions and preconceived notions that are so cherished and nurtured inside the finite human mind.

If we want to practice getting in tune with our Spirit in order to have deeper insights into the nature of things, e must resist becoming confused by the memories that haunt us, or by the aspirations we have of imaginary scenarios, or by fantasies of material gain or powers not yet attained. Realize that no other moment will ever come. Life is no more the present moment, as every second that passes brings about a completely new reality from the one we are experiencing now. If we are constantly overanalyzing the past, we are filling ourselves with regret, and if we are constantly thinking of the future, we are filling ourselves with shame for not being the person we wish to be now. Either way what we are doing above all is reinforcing the belief that the present is not good enough. When this happens continually, we become immersed in our thoughts, and we reach a point where we can never be totally in the present. If we cannot be in the present moment, we can never fully grasp the Divine ideas, or truths, of life. This is because the Spirit realm of wisdom, from which these truths come, is not ruled by time. Time is an imaginary product of our mind, and if we are constantly in another period of time in our head, we are definitely not getting in tune with the realm of Spirit. We must realize that now is the only time we have to act upon our intuition, and to transform ourselves into our highest version. When we receive a revelation from the Spirit, we must appreciate it to the fullest extent, and put it into practice before it becomes mentally corrupted.